About Crazy Eights: Play Crazy Eights Online Free vs the Computer
Match the top card of the discard pile by suit or by rank. 8s are wild: play one on any card and name the suit the next player must follow. If you cannot play, draw from the stock until you draw a card you can play.
By the ToolFluency team · Updated October 2026
Crazy Eights is the classic shedding card game: match the top card by suit or rank, use the wild 8s to change the suit, and be the first to empty your hand. Here you play against one, two or three computer players at Easy or Normal. The cards you can play stand up in your hand, the suit in force is always shown beside the discard pile, and a short log says what each computer did. Every hand is scored for you on the score pad, and the first to 100 points wins. The full printable Crazy Eights rules are here too, for playing with a real deck.
How to play Crazy Eights
- Pick the computer level (Easy or Normal) and how many computer players you want (1, 2 or 3). With one computer you each get 7 cards; with more, everyone gets 5.
- The top card of the stock starts the discard pile. Play goes clockwise: you, then each computer from left to right. The deal moves one seat to the left each hand.
- On your turn, play a card that matches the top card by suit or by rank. The cards you can play stand up in your hand; tap one (or drag it to the discard pile).
- 8s are wild. When you play an 8, pick the suit the next player must follow from the four suit buttons. The suit in force is shown beside the discard pile, marked when an 8 named it.
- If nothing matches, press Draw or tap the stock, one card at a time, until you draw a card you can play. When the stock runs out, the discard pile is shuffled into a new one.
- The first player out of cards wins the hand and scores the cards left in every other hand: 8s are 50, K, Q, J and 10 are 10, Aces 1, other cards their number.
- Press Next hand to deal again. The score pad keeps every hand, and the first to 100 points wins the game. Your wins and win streak are kept on this device.
Examples
Strategy tips
- Save your 8s. A wild card you still hold at the end of a hand is 50 points to the winner, but an 8 played too early wastes your best way out of a tight spot.
- When you play an 8, name the suit you hold the most of, so you can keep following it.
- Get rid of high cards (10s and court cards) while the game is calm. If another player goes out, they are what costs you.
- Watch who has to draw. If a computer drew on Spades, it probably has none, so switching to Spades when it is down to one or two cards can hold it back.
- A rank match changes the suit. If you are out of the suit in force, play the same rank in a suit you are long in.
Example: a wild 8
The top card is the 3 of Hearts and you hold no Hearts and no 3. You play the 8 of Spades and name Diamonds, because you hold three Diamonds. The next player must play a Diamond or another 8. If they cannot, they draw until they can.
Frequently asked questions
What are the rules of Crazy Eights?
Match the top card of the discard pile by suit or by rank. 8s are wild: play one on any card and name the suit the next player must follow. If you cannot play, draw from the stock until you draw a card you can play. The first player to get rid of every card wins the hand.
How many cards do you deal in Crazy Eights?
7 cards each with two players, 5 each with three or four. The rest of the deck is the stock, and its top card is turned up to start the discard pile. If that card is an 8, it goes back into the middle of the stock and the next card is turned instead.
What happens when you play an 8?
An 8 can go on any card. You then name a suit (it can be the suit already showing), and the next player must play that suit or another 8. Here four suit buttons appear when you play an 8; if the 8 is your last card the hand ends at once.
Do you have to draw if you can play?
No, but you may: you can draw instead of playing, one card at a time, until you draw a card you can play. Once you draw a card you can play, you must play. If nothing in your hand matches, you have to draw.
What happens when the draw pile runs out?
The discard pile, all but its top card, is shuffled into a new stock and play goes on. Only when there is nothing at all left to draw does a player who cannot play pass.
How is Crazy Eights scored?
The player who goes out scores the cards left in everyone else's hand: 50 for each 8, 10 for each King, Queen, Jack and 10, 1 for an Ace, and the number for 2 to 9. Nobody else scores that hand. The first player to reach 100 points wins the game.
How strong is the computer?
Easy plays any card that fits, wild 8s included, and often names a suit at random. Normal saves its 8s until nothing else will play, plays toward the suit it holds most, sheds high cards, and switches to a suit you have had to draw on when you are low on cards. In our tests of 550 two-player games, Normal beat Easy about three games in four.
Does the computer see my cards?
No. Each computer decides from what a player at the table can see: its own cards, the discard pile, the suit in force, how many cards everyone holds and who has had to draw. It never looks at another hand or the order of the stock.
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